Andrew Cuomo doesn't pay property taxes (updated)

His muscle cars are there. He’s been registered to vote there since August of 2009. But Gov.-elect Andrew Cuomo doesn’t own the Mount Kisco home that serves as his domicile — it belongs to Sandra Lee, the Food Network star and girlfriend of the attorney general.

The 2009 returns also show Cuomo paid $6,495 in New York City income taxes, though only $1,256 of that amount appeared to be withheld from his pay. He also claimed a $63 New York City Schools tax credit.

John Milgrim, a Cuomo spokesman, said in 2009 he was splitting his time between Manhattan and the Westchester County suburb, and paid the city taxes “out of an abundance of caution.” Milgrim confirmed Cuomo does not own the Mount Kisco house where he is “domiciled,” but declined to say who did. Lexis Nexis records indicate it is Lee.

Cuomo has made a property tax cap a centerpiece of his governing agenda, and often talked about their scourge on the campaign trail. He keeps details of his private life close, and in respect for this sensibility I’m not publishing the exact address.

UPDATE: Milgrim called to add that Cuomo and Lee “do share in expenses on the house and they do share the property tax expense” and that he “has always paid property taxes on any property he has owned.” Cuomo has previously owned residential properties in New York.

The heart of the returns show things we already know since we were briefed on Cuomo’s returns in April (when he filed for an extension): He earned $144,026 as attorney general, $2,730 in interest (on an account at Chase bank) and $3,796 in dividends on an account he keeps with AMG National Trust Bank. Cuomo earned $28,211 by liquidating his investment in POA Capital Partners, about which few details were available. Cuomo spokesman John Milgrim said it is a “now-defunct investment partnership that invested in equities. The partnership was terminated in 2009, and the attorney general received the value of his investment, which was relatively small.”

A Cuomo aide said on background that Cuomo was a “passive investor” and “wouldn’t know” the other partners in the firm — just the manager. The aide declined to name the fund’s manager because “we don’t want to get into the business of advertising for a private investment adviser.” I imagine this is an especially sensitive area for Cuomo, given all that he’s done investigating investment adviser firms as part of his three-year probe of pay-to-play practices regarding the state pension fund under ex-Comptroller Alan Hevesi. For all we know, there might be a potential conflict there. The aide insisted there’s “absolutely no conflict whatsoever.”

The aide said Cuomo gained some money on the investment, which was initially made in 2002.

Here are some other nuggets from the returns:

— We don’t know how much Cuomo has invested in AMG, but his disclosure forms reveal its over $250,000. This appears to be the bulk of his assets; according to his returns, he paid $5,758 in management fees to the bank, and earned $12,547 in tax-exempt interest. (So we just learned that number today.)

— Cuomo received refunds from both the state and federal governments: $1,082 and $12,925, respectively. Since he filed for an extension, unlike me, I suspect he wasn’t caught up when Gov. David Paterson delayed refund checks amid a cash crunch. (Yes, Morgan Hook. I still remember our daily conversations about this issue.)